THE WINDSOR CHAIRMAKER Newsletter of the Windsor Workshop January 1/00

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

THE WINDSOR CHAIRMAKER Newsletter of the Windsor Workshop January 1/00 THE WINDSOR CHAIRMAKER Newsletter of The Windsor Workshop January 1/00 My thanks to so many of you who sent goodwill messages after receiving my last newsletter where I gave details of my heart problems over last winter. I am pleased to report that The Windsor Workshop is back operating at full stretch and I have already run 4 courses since mid-February, with lots more scheduled for the rest of the year. I have decided that enforced time-out from a routine is not all bad! It has certainly given me the opportunity to develop new ideas and reassess my chairmaking priorities and the results will gradually emerge over the next year or so. In a couple of weeks I will be attending the Bodger’s Ball (AGM of the Association of Pole Lathe Turners (APT)) and I hope to finally get around to making my own pole lathe shortly afterwards. There is no chance that I will be offering pole-lathing on my courses in the foreseeable future, but I feel the need to become proficient in this as- pect of traditional chairmaking. Similarly I hope to make some ladderback chairs over the summer using some of the techniques that I have developed for making Wind- sors. Watch out for new-shaped spokeshaves in the next few months though the travisher will remain unchanged. Interestingly the majority of sales of these tools are currently from the USA – the power of the internet to make this possible continues to amaze me! I wish you a good summer. The current amazing weather can surely not continue for ever and I hope that we will receive some rain soon otherwise southern England will resemble southern Europe before too long! James Mursell Win a FREE course! Visit the Classic Hand Tools website www.classichandtools.com and enter their competition for the opportunity to win a 4-day chairmaking course at The Windsor Workshop. Answer just five simple questions (you’ll find the answers by browsing through www.thewindsorworkshop.co.uk) for an excellent chance of winning. Don’t put off booking a course in the hope of winning the competition! If you have already booked and then win, I’ll refund your deposit and there’ll be nothing to pay. www.thewindsorworkshop.co.uk An Amazing Windsor Chair! Over the past few months I have had the pleasure of working with Katie Walker, furniture designer, on her new rocking chair. Katie lives locally and works extensively with Roger Smith. I visit Roger’s work- shop regularly to thickness and join seat wood for courses and to prepare blanks for my tools. Through conversations about Wind- sor chairs Katie decided that she would like to make a Windsor ver- sion of her iconic ‘Ribbon Rocking Chair’. Not having acted as a ‘consultant’ before it was great fun to encourage her in this venture and to be able to demonstrate the techniques involved in making the new chair, such as measuring the spindle angles, shaping the seat + spindles and drilling all the holes. Roger took on the steam bending of the bow using the former from the previous chair and settling for four sec- tions joined togeth- er to make the complete bow. The Ribbon Rocking Chair The new chair is currently in the Saatchi gallery in London and Katie hopes to get into small production runs. I look forward to producing many of the compo- nents for her. Shortly after the first chair was finished, I sat down with Katie and she told me a little about her background9 Katie explained that the underlying philosophy of her furniture is that ‘the structure is the form’. She dislikes added ornamentation as it is the fundamental structure that interests her. Drilling the Bow Roger Smith, Katie Walker, James Mursell 1 Katie was interested in woodworking from her school days and after school took a one year foundation arts course before enrolling in the Furniture and Product Design course at Ravensbourne. Subsequently she spent 2 years at the Royal College of Art studying furniture receiving her first commission in 0882. Katie believes that ‘chairs are the ultimate pieces of furniture as they are so difficult to make really well’. She pointed out that making ‘one-off’ pieces is very expensive and it is difficult to achieve the necessary price from the final design – a sentiment that I completely agree with! Her first rocking chair was unique. She explained that she knew that she wanted to design a rocker, but didn’t know the form, other than that she wanted the frame to be continuous and to flow. Inspiration came from endless studying of other chairs, sculpture and nature – she is fascinated by the patterns and geometry in the growth of plants and animals. With the structure of the frame decided on, the question then became how to make it. In the end she and Roger Smith settled on an industrial bandsaw blade as the ideal former for laminat- ing. This proved a great success with just a single joint in the complete band. ‘Weight and See’ I asked about the design process and she explained that ‘I usually have to work hard to produce a design, though occasionally it just clicks into place. However I am al- ways a little worried if it is not a struggle – I need a little torture in the process!’ The ribbon-rocker was a great success, winning several awards, but with its high price sold few examples. The new Windsor rocker is considerably less expensive to make and it is hoped that not only will it be well received artistically but will also become a commercial success. First shown at Collect, 5 – 8 May 1/00 at the Saatchi Gallery, London www.katiewalkerfurniture.com Jack Goodchild Chairs Last December I received an email asking if I might know anybody who would be inter- ested in a couple of chairs made by Jack (‘last of the bodgers’) Goodchild. I telephoned to find out a little more about the chairs with the intention of making a few sugges- tions, but as the conversation continued I began to consider buying them myself. By the end of the call I had made an offer which was accepted. I am now the proud owner of a full-size chair and apprentice piece made by Jack Goodchild. 2 If you are not familiar with the name already, Jack’s life and work was recorded in some detail and many photos of him and his workshop can be found in books about English Windsor chairs. Carole Leatherhead wrote the following to accompany the chairs9 “My father, Ron Payne, was given the Windsor chair by his Uncle Jack’s widow – Uncle Jack being Jack Goodchild, the Naphill ‘Bodger’. Uncle Jack used to make the chairs in the barn in the orchard at the back of the cottage in Naphill where they lived and I can remember playing there as a child. The smell of sawdust still evokes memo- ries of that barn to this day. The old cottage had no ‘mod cons’ and Auntie Liz, Jack’s wife, used to draw water from a well in the lawn of the garden, which was surrounded by real country garden flowers such as hollyhocks, delphiniums and roses. I was born just around the corner in Louches Lane, so after we moved, my mother and father still visited Auntie Liz at the cottage and after she had to move to another house in the vil- lage, right up until her death in 0861. My father died in 1//5, so I have now inherited ‘the’ chair and its apprentice piece and, although loathe to part with them, I am happy in the knowledge that they will be finding a home where they will be not only be properly cared for, but appreciated by others for the works of art which they are.” These two chairs are now admired by every person that comes on a chairmaking course at The Windsor Workshop. They are the first Windsors that I have ever bought, apart from two (very uncomfortable) eastern European kitchen versions and that was years before I made my first chair! 3 Keith Lane, who attended a course at The Windsor Workshop last year and who owns a Jack Good- child chair of his own, recently sent me some photos of chairs made by Jack’s brother Sidney. These are ‘gothic’ Wind- sors with their character- istically pointed bows. The photos were taken in Naphill, the village where Jack lived. Tools I recently bought some fabulous tools from Glen Rundell in Australia. He has worked with Curtis Buchannan from the US who favours tapered joints in his Windsors and Glen has produced these tools from Australian hardwoods. Glen wrote9 The tenoners ( not an ideal name but at least we know what we mean! ) are a copy of the tools we used in Tennessee, where we learnt to make the continuous arm chair from Curtis Buchanan, who is without doubt one of America's finest. I have seen similar tools for sale on the Classic Hand Tools site in the U.K., the only difference being the shape and perhaps the angle of tenon. Cur- tis explained to us that he uses 5 degree tenons as it allows for small- er dimensioned parts, legs etc and therefore a more refined or delicate looking chair. There are still several makers in the US who use 00 or 01 degrees but their chair parts and therefore their chairs have a much heavier look. When teaching I use the analogy of a 34 degree mortise and tenon in comparison to say a 1 degree.
Recommended publications
  • SLO Presentation
    Cerritos College SLO Presentation WMT Date: 09/11/2019 TECHNOLOGY WMT Cabinetmaking--Cert • Students build a 32mm system cabinet project to meet the requirements of specified planning documents. • Students build a faceframe cabinet project to meet the requirements of specified planning documents. • Students design and build a group of kitchen cabinets using face-frame or 32mm construction methods. • Students select and install base, case, and crown moldings. • Students use computer software to create planning documents. • Students, working as a team, design, build, and install a cabinet or millwork project. Furniture Making--Cert • Student utilize handtools to augment machine tool use in the construction of a furniture project. • Students build a casegood project to meet the requirements of specified planning documents. • Students build a table project to meet the requirements of specified planning documents. • Students convert rough lumber to a flat, straight and square-edged piece suitable for project use. • Students prepare and present a design portfolio including concept sketches, scale drawings, and a scale model and/or full-sized drawing of a chair, table, and casegood. • Students select, prepare for, and apply the appropriate finish for a furniture or casegood project. Woodworking--Cert • Students build a 32mm system cabinet project to meet the requirements of specified planning documents. • Students build a casegood project to meet the requirements of specified planning documents. • Students build a faceframe cabinet project to meet the requirements of specified planning documents. • Students build a table project to meet the requirements of specified planning documents. • Students convert rough lumber to a flat, straight and square-edged piece suitable for project use.
    [Show full text]
  • Steam-Bending Instruction Booklet
    Steam-Bending Instruction Booklet 05F15.01 Veritas® Steam-Bending Instruction Booklet Bending Solid Wood with Steam and allowed to stretch as the bend progresses; however, the Compressive Force wood face against the form is subject to compression There are three basic requirements for the successful exerted by the end stops. bending of solid wood using steam. 1. The wood must be plasticized. Although wood can be plasticized chemically or even by microwaves when in a green state, the most convenient way to plasticize wood is with steam. Wood cells are held together by a naturally occurring substance in the wood called lignin. Imagine the wood fi bers to be a bundle of rods with the space between them fi lled with lignin. The strength of this lignin bond between the rods can be decreased by subjecting For example, a straight piece of wood 1" thick and 18" the wood to steam. With unpressurized steam at 212° long bent to 90° around a 4" radius will remain 18" Fahrenheit, steaming for one hour per inch of thickness along the outside (immediately next to the strap), but (regardless of the width) will soften the bond enough for will have the inside dimension reduced to almost 16". bending. Substantial oversteaming may cause the wood Nearly two inches have virtually disappeared through to wrinkle on the concave face as the bend progresses. compression along the inside face! 2. Only air-dried wood of an appropriate species Strap should be used. Blank Kiln-dried wood must not be used; the lignin in the wood has been permanently set during the hot, dry 18" kilning process.
    [Show full text]
  • Orinda's Windsor Chair Guy-George Lucido
    LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Orinda's Windsor Chair Guy-George Lucido Published June 22nd, 2011 Orinda's Windsor Chair Guy-George Lucido By Andrea A. Firth George Lucido was destined to work with wood. One of the first things he did when he moved to Orinda in 1984 was build a workshop out back, a small space of his own where he taught himself to carve wood. The walls of the workshop are lined with a collection of tools passed down by his grandfather, Orlando Pasquinucci, a shipbuilder in San Francisco around the turn of the century, and his father, Neno Lucido, who spent his career as a finish carpenter. "It's in my genes, I guess," says Lucido. After retiring as an aerospace engineer eleven years ago, Lucido has focused his extensive energy on woodworking. The workshop has been bumped out a few feet on two sides to accommodate his growing collection of tools, equipment, and wood. And about three years ago, he started to take classes at the Mount Diablo Adult Education Center where he met another Orinda resident, Tom Killen, a master woodworker who specializes in colonial furniture. It was Killen who introduced Lucido to the art of the Windsor chair. George Lucido at work on a chair in his workshop . An easy going and patient man with an engineer's Photos Doug Kohen focus on design and detail, Lucido had the right temperament and skill set to quickly master the complex and time consuming construction of the American Windsor chair-the elegant and lightweight wood chair of royal English roots with a gently curved back formed by turned spindles connected to a thick carved seat, supported by splayed legs plugged into the underside.
    [Show full text]
  • Using Local Woodlot Lumber Sara J
    Extension F-9-03 FSchoolSchool ofactSheet Natural of Natural Resources, Resources, 2021 2021 Coffey Coffey Road, Road, Columbus, Columbus, Ohio Ohio43210 43210 Using Local Woodlot Lumber Sara J. Gurney Wood Products Marketing Specialist Introduction resistance to decay, ease of working, weight, hardness, color, Ohio’s Appalachian hardwoods are unique in their variety, grain, and resistance to splitting are particularly significant. quality, and beauty. Ohio’s forests contain well over 100 different When selecting lumber for a specific project, consider how the hardwoods and 25 different softwood tree species. Historically, characteristics of the wood species will meet the requirements humans have used wood and wood products for shelter, fire, of the job. For example, joists for a shed should use a wood with and in war, making wood an integral part of our civilization. We good stiffness and bending strength. Since many sheds are not use wood because it is easy to work with, inexpensive, durable, heated, wood with good dimensional stability and the ability to and readily available. Early settlers relied heavily on old growth hold nails should also be considered. Once the requirements for yellow poplar to make barn siding. Old growth yellow poplar the project have been identified, select a wood species with the made excellent decay resistance siding for log homes due to the most appropriate attributes. naturally occurring tannins in the wood. Yellow poplar boards Often the job requires wood that is decay resistant. Keep in were easy to hand hue and resisted warp and shrinkage. Today, mind that the heartwood found in the center of the log contains yellow poplar is still used for siding due to its availability, low less moisture and higher concentrations of decay resistance cost, paintability, and resistance to warp and shrinkage, as seen chemicals than the younger sapwood.
    [Show full text]
  • Materials & Processes
    Mahogany Spruce Ash Dark red White Light brown Easy to work with Not very durable tough/flexible Uses - bars, veneers, Uses - kitchens, Uses - tool Indoor furniture. Indoor work, handles, sports Red pine Beech furniture equipment, Pale red Light colour ladders Heavy / strong Hard Use - structural Easy to work with Uses - furniture, toys Oak Softwood Tool handles, can be Light brown steam bent Hardwood Difficult to work Natural with Uses - high MATERIALS WOOD class furniture, beams Hardboard Bonded under high Manufactured board pressure Chipboard Strong + thin Wood particles + Similar to MDF Plywood Flexi-ply resin Laminated (layered) (see ugly/weak/cheap MDF veneers set at a 90* plywood) *often covered in a Sawdust + resin angle. Able to veneer, this makes Damaged by Natural finish + grain bend it stronger + more moisture Uses - interior and aesthetically * Takes paint well exterior. pleasing *Easy to finish *Smooth surface PROCESSES Laminating Type1 This is quite an accurate method of shaping wood. It involves building up a curved form with layers. The layers may be thin veneers, thicker constructional veneers or saw-cut strips. They are assembled so that the grain of each layer is running in the same direction, following the curve . The layers are glued together with a strong adhesive and are sandwiched between the waxed faces of a former or a jig using cramp pressure. The layers bend to the shape of the jig and ‘set’ together. Another way of producing curved laminates is to use a ‘bagpress’. Type2 Creating larger board of wood from natural timber by gluing them together side by side.
    [Show full text]
  • Design Ireland
    At-a-glance LIVE TALKS | IN-STORE DEMONSTRATIONS | HANDS ON WORKSHOPS March 8 TH TUESDAY MEET THE MAKER John Hanly, Weaving Craft 1-2pm & 6-7pm 9 TH WEDNESDAY DEMO Adam Frew, Throwing Pots MEET THE MAKER Catherine Keenan, Glass Craft 1-2pm & 6-7pm 10TH THURSDAY DEMO Adam Frew, Throwing Pots MEET THE MAKER Catherine Keenan, Glass Craft 1-2pm & 6-7pm 11TH FRIDAY DEMO Adam Frew, Throwing Pots MEET THE MAKER Catherine Keenan, Glass Craft 1-2pm & 6-7pm 12TH SATURDAY DEMO Bunbury Boards, Wood Turning 13TH SUNDAY DEMO Bunbury Boards, Wood Turning 7th March – 14TH MONDAY DEMO Bunbury Boards, Wood Turning 24th April 2016 Joe Hogan The Great Heal’s Adam Frew Bodging Race 15TH TUESDAY DEMO me&him&you, Screen Printing FEATURING MEET THE MAKER John Hanly, Weaving Craft 1-2pm & 6-7pm 16TH WEDNESDAY DEMO me&him&you, Screen Printing MEET THE MAKER Scribble & Stone, Jewellery Design 1-2pm & 6-7pm Design Ireland 196 Tottenham Court Road, 17TH THURSDAY DEMO Joe Hogan, Basket Making 11am-9pm; MEET THE MAKER Scribble & Stone, London W1T 7LQ 7th – 28th March Jewellery Design 1-2pm & 6-7pm; PARTY Heal’s Craft Market Party 6-9pm 18TH FRIDAY DEMO Joe Hogan, Basket Making www.heals.com MEET THE MAKER Scribble & Stone, Jewellery Design 1-2pm & 6-7pm Modern Craft Market TO BOOK WORKSHOP TICKETS VISIT www.heals.com/events 01 Heal's MCM Brochure - 6pp Cover.indd 1 17/02/2016 11:44 19TH SATURDAY DEMO Joe Hogan, Basket Making 7 TH THURSDAY DEMO CSWA_, Domestic Cup Casting 12.30-2pm & 5-8pm 20TH SUNDAY DEMOWelcome Arran Street East, Throwing Pots 8 TH FRIDAY WORKSHOP
    [Show full text]
  • Bending Wood Free
    FREE BENDING WOOD PDF "Fine Woodworking" Magazine | 128 pages | 01 Sep 1989 | Taunton Press Inc | 9780918804297 | English | Connecticut, United States Bending Wood Part I - Kerf Bending You must remember one thing when it comes to bending wood, you must give it time. Wood is naturally flexible despite being high in moisture but once it is cut or after felling, the wood starts to lose moisture and begins to harden. When this happens, it may take a lot of time, and effort, for wood to bend to different shapes. The following techniques do not use heat or steam but can take time to bend wood. The lamination method uses a Bending Wood or a special kind of glue to bend wood. You Bending Wood be using a form or a pattern where the wood will be set in order to take up the form. The laminate will then be added in order to force the wood to take up the form. Cut the length of the wood strips longer than the final measurement. You need to do this because this technique will shorten the length of the wood. Draw a diagonal line using a pencil and a ruler across the bottom of the stock. This is done should the wood strips become dropped or rearranged. You will be able to tell which piece fits to where. Cut the wood strips using a straight-grained edge. Use a cork liner to line the form. The cork acts Bending Wood an anchor for the lamination. It will still even out any irregularities when the wood Bending Wood in its sawn form.
    [Show full text]
  • Revolving Windsor Chair
    16 Revolving Windsor Chair A few years ago it fell to me to write a story about Thomas Jefferson in a chess match with his slave Jupiter. This venture led to a play on the same subject, as well as research into the physical objects used as metaphorical vehicles for the ideas. In this regard, Jefferson makes it easy for us. One of the more obvious physical items is the revolving Windsor chair used by Jefferson when he was working to draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Having seen a picture of the chair in its surviving form and an- other picture of a re-creation of it, I undertook to make a similar one to use on stage. My version differs from the original in the use of a steam-bent arm rail rather than a sawn and carved one, because I could make a bent arm faster than a sawn one. Making this swivel Windsor is in some ways easier than making a normal one, in that the seat is circular rather than a sculpted outline. There are a lot of parts and processes to a Windsor chair, but with the exception of hollowing the seat, you have already seen how to do them all. Windsor chairs, as the name suggests, are of English design. Windsor chair-making in England centered around the town of High Wycombe, but the chairmaking did not begin in town. Out in the woods, workers called chair bodgers felled, split, and turned the beech legs on their springpole lathes, then sold these legs to chairmakers in town.
    [Show full text]
  • WSIU, WUSI, WSEC, WMEC & WQEC DT3 (SD2) CREATE Programming
    WSIU, WUSI, WSEC, WMEC & WQEC DT3 (SD2) CREATE Programming Schedule for July, 2020 as of 06/15/20 Wednesday, July 1, 2020 12am 100 Days, Drinks, Dishes and Destinations. CC #205 In the culinary adventure series 100 DAYS, DRINKS, DISHES & DESTINATIONS, Emmy and James Beard Award-winning wine expert Leslie Sbrocco travels the world with glass and fork in hand, indulging in delicacies, uncovering local hangouts, meeting talented artisans and visiting both up-and-coming and acclaimed restaurants, wineries and breweries. This season, Leslie explores San Francisco's Chinatown and Calistoga, California before jetting off to Vienna, Austria; Budapest, Hungary; and Normandy, France. TVG 12:30 Nick Stellino: Storyteller in the Kitchen. CC #203 The Vegetarian. While pondering life as a vegetarian, Nick discovers some fabulous new dishes loaded with spectacular flavors. Dishes include: Chilled Cantaloupe Soup / Salmon with Spinach and Pancetta Cream Sauce / Biancomangiare (Sicilian Almond Pudding). TVG 1am Moveable Feast with Fine Cooking. CC #705 Beachside In Brighton. We are in Brighton, a beautiful English seaside resort town, in this episode of Moveable Feast with Fine Cooking. Host Alex Thomopoulos is here to cook a feast with acclaimed chefs Michael Bremner and Sam Lambert. To gather the freshest fish, the chefs head to Brighton & Newhaven Fish Sales, where fisherman deliver the daily catch straight from the sea, then to inland to Namayasai, a gem of a farm that grows an exquisite array of Japanese vegetables. And finally, they travel to Saddlescombe Farm & Newtimber Hill, where sheep graze in the scenic British countryside. Back at Chef Michael's waterfront restaurant, Murmur, the trio cooks a delectable feast with the daily catch and an Herby White Wine Butter Sauce, Fire-Roasted Lamb, and Shrimp Shu Mai.
    [Show full text]
  • The Creation of 12 Hardwood Chairs
    The creation of 12 hardwood chairs T WOOD LIFE CYCLE MA KING When Sebastian Wrong told me project was born. that he was discussing the idea of a In the Design Products course student project with the American at e Royal College of Art, Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), we encourage the students to it immediately seemed a great experiment, to think about cultural opportunity to explore designing context in design, to explore with wood again. materials and be inventive. is is Wood has a long tradition in a risky approach to design; there furniture making. However, in are no predictable outcomes of the 20th Century, when industrial these processes. mass production reigned, wood e proposals that were was largely replaced in furniture presented in response to the production by plastic, metal and brief were very varied and were composites. Industrial usage often personal expressions by the preferred sheet materials such as individual designers about wood plywood, chipboard or MDF to and its relevance to furniture the tricky solid woods. Today, as today. As with most other industrial production is changing materials, the designer is no longer and becoming more diverse, the expert. For this expertise, environmentally and socially we were fortunate to collaborate conscious, computer controlled with the woodworking company and often smaller scaled, new Benchmark on this project. possibilities are emerging. Helped by their super-skilled and e project explores the knowledgeable team, the designers potential for solid hardwood were able to realise their ideas again as a serious material for in a hands-on manner. As good furniture.
    [Show full text]
  • Shed Notesissue 297 — January 2013
    Shed NotesIssue 297 — January 2013 Issue 297 January 2013 NEXT MEETING: Wednesday 30 January 2013, 1930 - 2130 Venue: The SHED, Lions Youth Haven, Kambah Pool Road, KAMBAH ACT 2902 Furnishing the Future Our speaker at the January monthly meeting is furniture-maker Niklavs Rubenis, who introduces himself as follows: I was born in Leeton NSW. I’m 31, married, grow veggies, have two cats, chickens, and live in a half-renovated 1920s cottage in Queanbeyan. I did it in reverse — furniture at the ANU School of Art first, trade in cabinet-making second. For the past decade, I have been professionally employed across many aspects of the furniture and design sectors. This has included high-scale manufacture; computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacture (CAD/CAM); commercial cabinetry; production and fine furniture-making; shop and museum fitout; exhibition design; project and design management; public art; urban design, and musical instrument-making. I am now in a very fortunate position to be able to combine my own furniture studio practice with teaching. In 2012 I was awarded an Australian National University Scholarship to undertake a PhD, beginning in 2013. My talk will be about learning, skills, thinking, and how furniture can tell a story. Contents Please note that the opinions expressed in articles in this Newsletter are those of the authors alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, or positions, of Presidential Palaver....................... 2~3 the Woodcraft Guild of the ACT as an organization. Editorial Effluvia .............................. 3 Coming Events.................................. 4 Executive Committee of the Guild: SIG Reports................................... 4~6 President: Fred Buckley [email protected] Feature Article: ...........................
    [Show full text]
  • Mending Solid Woo) 111) Form
    / 7‘4 MENDING SOLID WOO) 111) FORM Revised July 1955 \pRA.,43)_. MAR 19 1956 No. 17e4 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ugOREST SERVICE OREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY L Madison 5, W sc o n sin in Cooperation with the University of Wisconsin BENDING SOLID WOOD TO FORM By EDWARD C. PECK, Technologist 1 Forest Products Laboratory,– Forest Service U. S. Department of Agriculture •••••n 01.1 Introduction Wood bending, an ancient craft, is of key importance in many industries today -- notably furniture, boats and ships, agricultural implements, tool handles, and sporting goods. Of the several methods commonly used to produce curved parts of wood, it is perhaps the cheapest, conserves material, and produces a member of high strength. Despite its long practical history and advantages over other methods, however, there is no method of wood bending that guarantees 100 percent success. Long experience has evolved practical bending techniques, and skilled craftsmen to apply them. Yet commercial operators are often plagued with serious losses due to breakage during the bending. operation or the fixing process that follows. There'is a long-felt need for more reliable knowledge about such factors as (1) selection of bending stock, (2) seasoning and plasticizing of wood to prepare it for bending, (3) efficient machines for the bending operation, (4) drying and fixing the bent part to the desired shape, and (5) the effect of bending on the strength properties of wood. This report presents results of research on wood bending and related in- formation as developed at the U. S. Forest Products Laboratory and other laboratories over a period of years, together with investigations and ob- servations in furniture factories, ship'and boat yards, and other plants where wood bending is done commercially.
    [Show full text]